New Congregationalist hymnal

Although I serve an independent Christian church/churches of Christ congregation, I continue to hold Congregationalist standing.

The new hymnal of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches will be available soon. The list of hymns chosen is a real blessing to those of us who like the old standards.

The Hymnal Committee also refused to change the words of the old standards that would reflect inclusive language. My only complaint is that The Old Rugged Cross is not included.

See list of hymns selected here.

 

We have wonderful hymnals sitting in our seats at church and they are rarely opened anymore. We use the IMAG ALL the time for virtually everything we sing. *sigh* Baptist, Congregationalist, Lutheran -- I don't care! I miss my hymnal.

 

I can sympthize. I have visited a number of churches and hymnals are rarely if ever used anymore.

The church has become a place to entertain and feed the flock. We have received a number of people from contemporary worship services because we have a traditional service.

I have been told they get entertained but when the crises of life come, they don't know how to cope because they haven't been spiritually nourished.

 

Jimmy,

Very interesting. Thanks, so much, for starting this thread, and providing the link.

Based on what I'm seeing on that site, and on what you've written here, and on what I know (or at least think I know) of you, I'm thinking of two albums that are old and long out of print, but which I know can still be had out there if one knows where to look, that I believe you'd determine were well worth it to hunt down.

Back in 1978, and then again in 1981, traditional folk singers Jean Redpath and Lisa Neustadt got together with the Angel Band (Shari Ajemian, Jim McDade, Tom Gibney, Sarah Newcomb, Sarah Gregory, and T. William Smith) and produced two albums that I can no longer find in my collection (I've either somehow misplaced them or someone flat-out stole 'em) but which I miss very much. They were both on the old Fretless label (once a Rounder property, now long ago defunct):

• Angels Hovering Round, Fretless FR 138, LP (1978)
  - Angel Band
  - There Are Angels Hovering 'Round
  - Down on My Knees
  - Dry Bones
  - Give Me Your Hand
  - Harbour Bells
  - Have Thine Own Way
  - Jesus Won't You Come By Here
  - Land Where We'll Never Grow Old
  - Precious Memories
  - Shine On Me (Lighthouse)
  - This World Is Not My Home
  - Where The Soul of Man Never Dies
  
• Anywhere Is Home, Fretless FR 154, LP (1981)
  - Anywhere is Home
  - Face to Face
  - Grey Funnel Line
  - If You Believe
  - Jesus, Hold My Hand
  - Just as the Evening Sun
  - Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
  - Life's Railway to Heaven
  - Near the Cross
  - Now My Dear Companions
  - Oh He's Taken My Feet
  - Precious Lord, (Take My Hand)
  - Run Come See (Jerusalem)
  - Sailor's Prayer
  - Standing on the Promises [of God]
  - Turn Your Radio On
  - When Morning Comes

The music is highly traditional, and much of it a capella... as if choir members from a little, old, white clapboard, late-19th/early-20th century church just picked-up some old, dog-eared, leather-bound hymnals, stood up, and started singing their hearts out while the pianist or organist was still at home snoozing. Reviewers at the time called it "blue eyed soul," and much like the startlingly unusual and nasal vocals of the Bulgarian National Chorus (it's not at all like that, mind you... but I'm making the comparison because as with an album by the Bulgarian National Chorus), the listener of either of these two Angel Band albums either loves it...

...or runs from the room screaming. One person I played it for years ago said, "Oh, it's like shapnote singing." But that wasn't really accurate... or even close, once one truly understands what shapenote singing actually is. But I understood the simile because one thing that's common to both is the unambiguous intention of it all... the get-up-and-just-belt-it-out feel of it that is better understood by its hearing than by my description here. And as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that I've now made them sound more odd and obscure than they really were. After all, they appeared on the Prairie Home Companion (PHC) at least a couple of times back then that I can remember. Redpath has, of course, been on PHC many times, but I'm talking about her, together with Neustadt and the Angel Band. They got standing ovations. So it's not all that odd. In fact, it's quite traditional and familiar... if you're 83, that is.

I, for one, absolutely love it. I've wanted, for years, to find and (find the time to) organize 8 or 10 people with decent voices and a good ear to get together a night or two a week and make some traditional church and religious folk music exactly like that... and then maybe take it on the road a little and expose some youngsters (meaning, in this case, pretty much anyone younger than 35) to it.

I think I know someone who has both albums somewhere in her boxes of old LPs (probably in her garage), and who might be able to find them and send them to me so I can run them through my CD-making software and remove the scratches as I copy them onto CDRWs. Frankly, I think/fear that that's the only way I'll ever hear them again. They've been out of print for a long time, and can't even be gotten through Jean Redpath's web site or Amazon or anyplace else I've looked. And, believe me, I've looked. I challenge you to find them yourself... and I promise you they're worth the trouble.

In fact, if anyone reading this right now either has -- or knows of someone who has -- these albums; and if they're willing to either burn them onto CDs (sans scratches) for me, or is willing to ship them to me so that I can (and then ship them back, of course), I'll certainly make it worth their while. If that happens, Jimmy, I'll happily ship a (copied) set to you, too. But I'd need a couple bucks from you for it because I'd need to send money from both you and me at that point to RIAA or whomever they tell me I should send it to to cover the royalties to the rightful copyright holders. It's messy, but since they're out of print, that's the only way to do it and stay legal... which is the only way that I'll do it. But that's worrying about something that may never happen, so 'nuff said about that for now.

We are of one mind on this. ELCA Lutheran churches all have the dark green, hardbound Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) in their pews; along with the dark blue, paperpack With One Voice addendum hymnal (or at least that's what I call it). They're both terrible compared with what they replaced: The old, red, Service Book and Hymnal (SBH)... which, to be candid, I wish we were still using (yes, yes... I know it makes me sound like the musical equivalent of a luddite, but it is what it is).

But it's even worse than that: We don't even used those all that much! Instead, hymns are downloaded from the ELCA web site over the Internet and "pasted-up" (for repro) into each Sunday morning's bulletin. I've never even heard of many of them... and I've pretty much heard of them all! It's ridiculous!

Somewhere along the line, the mainstream denominations got it into their heads that one of the things they needed to do to attract young people to church was to modernize the music... and, worse, to forsake bona fide liturgy. It was (and remains) a huge mistake, in my opinion... and, believe me, I'm not particularly "high church." Lutherans have a rich and practically ancient history of beautiful and sophisticated music in its hymns and liturgy... some of it composed by the biggest names in now classical (and, in some cases, what was then "popular") music history... including -- and, to some degree, especially -- Bach, and his moving chorales and cantatas. I miss the sung/chanted liturgy of the SBH; and once (not all that long ago, in fact) drove 50 miles on a Sunday morning to attend a church that I heard was still using it. And it was. And it was wonderful!

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON MODERNIZING THE LORD'S PRAYER TO REMOVE "THEE" AND "THOU" AND WHATEVER ELSE SOME ELCA KNUCKLEHEAD THOUGHT WAS JUST TOO OLD-FASHIONED. I haven't had to read the Lord's Prayer from a book or the bulletin since I was a pre-schooler. Now, at almost 50, the idiot Worship and Music Committee chairperson at the church I've been attending lately (but which I've decided not to join) is making me say this:

• Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
  your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
  Give us today our daily bread.
  Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
  Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
  For the kingdom, the power, and the glorry are yours,
  now and forever. Amen.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

[Ahem] Sorry. I got a little carried away, there. But I don't feel strongly about it. Honest.

 

What yuns said.

 

Well Greg, finally I have to say, you and I are in complete and total agreement. There is absolutely nothing in your post I do not agree with 1000%.

Better make that 100% Remember what happened to Eagleton after McGovern backed him 1000% as his running mate?

P.S. Thanks for the info on the Angel Band. Sounds very spiritual and exciting. Will see if I can find them somewhere.

 

Just for you, Gregg:

• Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
  thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
  Give us this day our daily bread.
  And forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us.
  And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
  For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen.

 

Be happy to, Gregg, thanks!

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Thanks, Jimmy.

Now I need a cigarette. (Just kidding!)


Changing the subject... I see you used "maroon" as the prayer color. How is that different from the "darkred" that I use? Let's see:

• This is maroon.
  
  This is dark red.

On my monitor they look about the same. Are they anything more than minutely different for anyone else?

And neither of them is listed when one clicks on the COLOR drop-down selector box in the vB Code area of the composition window. Interesting.

Okay, I'm done. Sorry for the momentary detour.

 

When I visit one of those contemporary churches, I usually have no major problems with their theology, but I despise their music--written by the tone deaf for the tone deaf. Nothing reverential about it. Schlocky, second-rate pop music to me. If I want to listen to Brittney Spears (I don't even know if I spelled her name right or how to spell it, so profoundly interested am I in contemporary culture), I'll turn on a pop station--then jettison my latest meal.

When I go to a mainstream denominational church, like when we visit the wife's professor parents and go to their good liberal professorly church, the hair stands up on the back of my neck when I sing centuries-old songs from that hymnal and hear the organ and the choir rising up alongside my voice--I feel I'm in the presence of the Almighty! But when I hear the pastor give one of those mealy-mouthed sermons that discounts the scriptures, I'm cast back down from that presence.

A man without a country.

 

Don't think there is any difference. I don't know much about "official HTML" coding, I just taught myself what I know by studying web pages and used various words and codings that eventually work when I use them.

 

I hear you, brother. There are very few church services today where true reverence is displayed.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church, many Congregational churches, and a few Episcopal churches still have services that offer reverence and respect for the Lord in their services.

A few Quaker meetings, especially the silent ones, offer respectful worship.

Many church services today are like Raves without the drugs!

 

This is all very true. What people really want is something bigger than them--something unimaginably great. I believe that that something exists and dwelt among us and shed blood for our sins. I understand Paul's mandate that we should be a Greek to Greeks, a Jew to Jews, his clever use of their literarature to make a point that would resonate with them--he was quoting the Greek poet Aratus in his sermon on Mars Hill--, and his appeal to "The Unknown God". But I don't think that such an attitude should be carte blanche to make the truth something trite or trivial just because a culture happens to be trite and trivial. People want something more than that--they want the real thing.

 

man w/o a country?

Try this: http://wels.locatorsearch.com/

 

Janko:

Are you guys anything like MO Synod? Just curious. I went to a WELS church a couple visits years ago, but not enough to get a real feel. Did like the music, though. Lutherans of all stripes can sing like nightingales.

But let me tell you--none of them can dance like Messianics!

 

Re: man w/o a country?

Thanks Uncle Janko. I certainly didn't intend to leave out the many churches in the various denominations, especially the smaller ones, where reverential worship exists.

I used the WELS locator. Had no idea WELS had some congregations in my area. Four congregations, including two in Indy, are within 40 miles of me.

Even found two congregations in my home state of Mississippi, both within 40 miles of my hometown.

Perhaps I can visit one, one of these Sundays.

Thanks again!

 

Hey, you got a problem wit polkas?

Seriously, we are in doctrine and practice substantially more conservative than the Mo Synod (although there are some LCMS parishes which don't go along with the church growth movement and contempo-generic-evangelical-ising of the LCMS).
We are less secular-political than LCMS and are much less interested in the political religious right.

It's funny--between Gregg DesElms and me you've got the intelligent left and the [whatever I am] right of the Lutheran spectrum represented on Degreeinfo.

 

Originally posted by little fauss

Isn't it bold to assume that the "truth" or the "real thing" is found only in that which appeals to you. I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church where progressive was a man playing the piano, contemporary was adding a organ, and playing a guitar to "Amazing Grace" bordered on blasphemy.

I grew up with (and still have) a love for traditional hymns, but the church I attend now does mostly praise choruses and contemporary music. I find that too very fulfilling. If the words are sung from the heart and meant in adoration and worship, how can they be lacking in reverence?

For me hymns are sung "about" God and praise choruses are sung "to" God. I am moved by both. Two of my sons are very accomplished musicians and spend most weekends during the summer playing at different retreats and churches. While I enjoy their music, I do find it a bit "wild (if you will)" to be called church, but I know their heart for God and it is anything but irreverent, trite, or trivial. And as far as the "real thing" -- a weekend doesn't pass without at least one person coming to know Christ for the first time.

If it is founded in worship, brings folks closer to God, and adds to the Kingdom -- Bring it on and keep it coming.

 

Oh, take a chill pill, Kansas Baptist. And by the way, in my humble--not so humble?--opinion, that Baptist music STINKS OUT LOUD! And I used to go to a Baptist church once upon a time, so I know of whence I speak.

And you Kansas Baptist neanderthals need to go back home to your little submissive ladies who are barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and leave the real intellectual discussions to us real men of letters. Now, go handle snakes or something.

How do you like them apples?

P.S.: I'm having a little fun with you. I'm typically nice and at least semi-reasonable to people who come from vastly different theological stripes or are agnostic or outright pagans, but I'm a perfect horse's behind to those anywhere near me on the theological spectrum.